Is Joan Baez a fraud?

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: ddw
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 11:01 PM

Jeez, Janice —— do you sleep with your AK-47?

The original poster asked a question which, in one way or another, I've heard asked many times before about all sorts of performers who do something that requires interpreting material from another time or place —— which any folk musician is likely to do.

As for my "implication" that JB was callous or David Harris was a jerk. That was not an "implication," it was a question. Is she that callous? Was he a jerk? I don't know and I'd bet quite a bit you don't either. Your defence seems predicated on the fact she made some political statements you agree with. Not, in my opinion, the best basis for getting on your high horse and flaming one and all.

david

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Rasta
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:52 PM

i never heard that a bunch of viet pow s got there head kicked in on acct of her/ she sings great/ she looks great and she maid the greenbriar boys famious more or less------viva joanie-----rastaaaa

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:48 PM

Basic courtesy? Am I the one who used the word fraud? Or implied that Joan Baez was callous? Or that David Harris was a jerk? I'd rather let Joan's record speak for itself. It was she who walked beside young black children as they braved mobs to desegregate public schools in Mississippi. It is she who went to Hanoi during the Vietnam War and then, unlike Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, took the Communist leaders to task on their dismal human rights record. It is she who brought a message of nonviolence to such places as Palestinian refugee camps. Need I go on?

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:43 PM

Michael, we will soon find out. Why doesn't guest Jonny tell us exactly who has been "grumbling of late", as he alleges in his opening post ?

Nobody I know has. At least, not about Joan Baez ....

Murray

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: michaelr
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:31 PM

Janice in NJ - I believe you are being unfair to our guest Johnny, who started this thread with what seems to me a legitimate inquiry. Perhaps the recent brouhaha on the Cat has made you a bit jumpy? Let's not abandon basic courtesy here, s'il vous plait.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:28 PM

Joan's ex-husband's name was and still is David Harris. I had met both of them in early 1968, after David had refused induction into the army but before he went to prison. For whatever else you say, David showed courage. He didn't hide behind a perpetual student deferment. He didn't fake mental illness, claim to be gay when he wasn't, or flee to Canada. He simly stood up and said "This war is wrong, and I'm not going to cooperate with it." Joan supported him all the way, and I believe she did so with all the best of intentions. But during their separation , during which time their son Gabriel was born, they grew apart. In the end, neither blamed the other, at least not in public. That's a lot more than can be said for most celebrity couples who get divorced.

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:12 PM

she always kind of struck me to be a bit pretensious.....

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: ddw
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:09 PM

I love Joan's voice, too, but years ago she did something that struck me as odd, to say the least.

I saw her twice in concert while here activist husband, David Whats-iz-face, was in jail. Both times she milked the hell out of her connection with someone so committed to the cause — to the point of it being intrusive on the music. But the minute he got out of jail she filed for divorce.

I always wondered if she was really that callous — to use him to further her career — or if he really turned out to be a jerk or what.....

david

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:09 PM

Annie, was Richard Shindell playing with her that night? I know he has shared the billing on some of the tour dates.

Murray

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:04 PM

Definitely a troll. Ignore.

Joan Baez may have her issues, like any of us, but on the whole she is one of the most considerate and honest people who has ever graced our planet.

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: hobbitwoman
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 09:51 PM

Thank you, Murray! Just saw the woman in concert last night and she is nothing short of wonderful. What an amazing voice!

Annie

Subject: RE: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 09:47 PM

To some people, "success" = "sellout".

The only "sellout" Joan Baez is guilty of is the seats on her recent tour.

Murray

Subject: Is Joan Baez a fraud?
From: GUEST,Johnnythebone
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 09:42 PM

I heard some grumblings of late about Joan Baez being a "sellout". What's the background on this?